


Ten Alternate Universes: Bill and Heather

by DaibhidC



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Hyperdrive
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Medical, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Alternate Universe - Western, F/F, Mirror Universe, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 15:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12302181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaibhidC/pseuds/DaibhidC
Summary: The challenge: "Give me a character/pairing and I will write snippets of ten different alternate universes for it."The universes: Wild West, Cyberpunk, Shapeshifters, Fantasy/Fairy Tale, ...In SPACE!!, Apocalypse, Schoolfic, Emergency Services, Mirror Universe, SteampunkThe characters: Bill Potts and Heather





	Ten Alternate Universes: Bill and Heather

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JohnAmendAll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohnAmendAll/gifts).



**Wild West**

Billie Potts had been a waitress in Doc’s Saloon, Lukesville for about a year now, and one thing she’d learned was that you needed to be observant. Like, for instance, observing that the woman who had just ordered breakfast had the same unusual eye as the trail boss who’d come in last night. She mentioned this quietly.

“Yup,” said the woman, unabashedly. “You’ll hear people callin’ the boss ‘Heath’, but the name’s Heather. I reckon it’s a bit of an open secret, but they ain’t gonna make a fuss about it, on account of I’m the best trail boss they’ve got.”

“Really?” said Billie. She looked round to check the place was quiet, “I’d love to hear more about it.”

Heather grinned. “Sure you wouldn’t rather be spendin’ time with the lady you gave an extra helping of fried potatoes?”

_Oh, yeah_ , Billie thought, _Doc_ also _taught me to remember other people can be observant too._

**  
**

**Cyberpunk  
**

“So she’s gone?” Bill asked the Doctor.

“I’m sorry, but yes. This body is empty. The PILOT system … it’s sent her out into cyberspace somewhere.”

“Right,” Bill looked determined, “Well, you offered to teach me to be a netrunner, so if I’m gonna find her again, we’d better get started.”

**Shapeshifters**

Since the last we saw they were both made of smart-liquid, I think I get a pass on this one…

**Fantasy/Fairy Tale**

Upon arriving at the castle, Bill was surprised to be greeted by animated furniture, led by a grandfather clock who introduced himself as the Doctor, and a spherical light-fitting the Doctor briefly referred to as Nardole. Together they explained that the lady of the castle had been cursed to become a pool of water until her True Love found her.

“Right,” said Bill, “So it’s _Sleeping Beauty_ meets _Beauty and the Beast_ and I’m Philip and Belle. Which, with my surname, is a bit of a relief.”

 

**. . . In SPACE!!**

It was only Bill’s second day on the HMS _Camden Lock_ , but she was already having doubts about the rest of the crew. And she _really_ didn’t like what they’d done to Heather to make her the Pilot.

**Apocalypse**

Bill gazed at the burning fields.

“So the world is collapsing, the people are mostly dead, the Doctor is nearly dead, and the two of us are pretty much the last ones left. How is this different from canon again?”

“Careful,” said Heather, “That’s the second time you’ve broken the fourth wall in one of these. You don’t want it to become a habit.”

“Pointing that out doesn’t exactly help with the metafiction either. Personally, I reckon the author just can’t do Apocalypse and knows it, so he’s trying to distract everyone.”

 

**Schoolfic**

As Bill walked through the playground, she saw Heather apparently staring at a puddle. “Hey,” she said. Heather turned, revealing that she was actually staring at her phone.

“Oh, hi,” she said, “You’ve got to see this. It’s a talent show, like _BGT_ but from the old days. It’s really funny.”

“Okay,” said Bill, “What’s it called?”

“ _Stars in Their Eyes_.”

**Emergency Services**

It was Bill’s first day on the air ambulance. As she got in she doubletaked, “Heather? _You’re_ the pilot?”

“Of course. Strap in, we’ll be taking off in a moment.”

“But … last week you were driving an ambulance. A regular ambulance, I mean.”

“I can drive – or fly – anything,” Heather said, simply.

Bill smiled, “And you just happen to _always_ be driving the vehicle I’m assigned to?

“Well…”

 

**Mirror Universe**

Bill Potts ran.

A few weeks earlier, her tutor at the Lucas Institute of Approved Knowledge had unexpectedly turned out to be a deranged alien who called himself the Leader. Apparently having a pathological need for some kind of audience to his activities, he’d decided to drag her across time and space with him. Finally, she’d managed to give him the slip on a huge spaceship, where he was converting the inhabitants (Telosians, she thought he’d said) into some kind of cyborgs. She figured she needed to get out before he decided she was next.

What she didn’t know was where she was going. Even if she found some kind of escape pod or something,  what next? She didn’t know when she was, or how far it was to Earth. She needed some kind of transport that could…

As she thought this a pool of water near her feet rose up into a familiar form.

“Oh, great,” she said aloud. “The _other_ alien monster who wanted to kidnap me.”

**Steampunk**

They called it the Great War or the War to End Wars. Possibly by ending everything else.

On one side were the squat steam tanks of the Skaronians, on the other the silvery automaton soldiers of Movellia. Both sides creating perfect battle plans through their difference engines, then perfectly countering said plans. Neither side prepared to consider that perhaps ignoring the strategy engines would enable them to achieve something their opponents could not predict. The result: a stalemate that had lasted for decades.

And in the middle, Miss Wilhelmina Potts, who had somehow found herself in the centre of the warzone, after fleeing Bristol with her guardian to escape scandal and heartbreak. (Said guardian had blamed his valet for booking passage on the first ship out of port without checking where it was going. Said valet had pointed out that “book us passage on the first ship out of port” was exactly what he had been told to do.)

Some might have said that it was therefore particularly unfair that the source of her scandal and heartbreak was _also_ on the Movellian land-cruiser they had been travelling on, having unexpectedly emerged from one of the Skaronian steam tanks  that had recently swarmed the vessel.

Miss Potts, however, felt that it was perhaps the first thing that had gone right in a long time.


End file.
